<p>Any one hear from KCAI (Kansas City) yet? Early deadline date was Feb 1, but haven’t heard anything yet. MCAD (Minneapolis) early date was Feb 15, and got acceptance email the next day, with merit aid letters going out this week or next Poor D is still on the fence, and can’t make a decision until we hear from all the schools to see what financial aid looks like. At this point she doesn’t even know if she’s been accepted to KCAI. They loved her portfolio, but that’s all we know. She wanted to make one more visit to MCAD to see it again before deciding, but the only time before the May 1 deposit deadline was spring break. Would cost $800 for trip and we’d probably get snowed it (1st week of April). We’ll be in that area in June, so decided to wait until then. Figured if I sent in the deposit now and she decided to go, she’d get priority. If not, she’d be out the $150. But we’d have spend $800 that we’d never get back. So it was kind of a no brainer.</p>
<p>hi
i don’t know if it helps but when my kid did pre college apps, it was sort of test run for real thing, everything sent out about the same time on earlier side for scholarships, regardless of deadline/notification dates that differ little from school to school.
quickest reply was MECA, then SAIC.
RISD, KCAI was the latest. I found it sort of mirrors what i read these years about college results as well. </p>
<p>one little thing bothered me about KCAI was that, last summer they sent out invitation to visit with campus map on it, then admission office was relocated within weeks of printing and mailing the cards out.
I have a feeling administration get wacky sometimes, or just take time than some others.
If you are really pressured and strapped, I don’t see why you can not call up and ask where they are at decision making.
To bad your D could not visit during ice fishing sub zero shut in Minnesota period to see how she handles it (from Florida? jeez), but it seems it won’t faze her, maybe you’ve got the answer already.
good luck</p>
<p>Finally emailed KC and they are starting reviews in the next couple of days and we should have an answer by next week hopefully. MCAD’s sending theirs out about the same time. In her mind, MCAD is still neck in neck with KC. We visited MCAD, MIAD (Wisconsin) and NMU (Marquette, MI. along the southern shore of Lake Superiror) in April last year and it was snowing and windy. She learned that you need to cover your ears or else you can’t feel them anymore! She really doesn’t seem to mind cold, even when it was cold here (for us, 33 degrees).</p>
<p>S received formal notice of SAIC admission a few weeks ago but the merit award letter came yesterday. Anyone else getting these? S had no reaction; too freaked out by IB final Spanish oral exam today (2 years worth of reading spanish literature to be summarized into a tape recorder for unknown grader in Madrid).</p>
<p>my gosh fammom how much how much how much??? do tell</p>
<p>so IB means real spanish-spanish? how different are they from what spoken around here? I met all different kind and they all seem to think theirs are the best, central, south, in between, all over latin americas.
then gone over there catalonia, valencia, islands, etc etc
oh how nice to be able to roam free if you can do at least the basics</p>
<p>$ amount in PM but only takes a bite out of that mouthful of tuition/fees/housing. IB spanish…my kid has a rather generic south american accent…hard to place him but definitely not Spain and definitely not a Caribbean so hopefully they will treat him gently. I think as long as you don’t sound like Chavez or Castro they at least know that you know how to close your mouth and breath between vowels.</p>
<p>My son got accepted to SAIC a while ago and they notified him of his merit scholarship with his acceptance. (He applied before Dec. 7th…they had a version of EA with early notification of merit scholarship.) But the other day they sent a more official looking analysis of cost and aid and they added another much smaller scholarship to the original one. Like fammom said though, it “only takes a bite out of that mouthful of tuition/fees/housing”. We also can’t forget about costs for food since SAIC does not have a meal plan.</p>
<p>He was also accepted to CCA and SCAD with very similar merit offers. They both said in their letters that we will be notified in March/April about additional financial aid based on need.</p>
<p>There are four more schools to hear from. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will hit our target tuition amount at one of them.</p>
<p>Oh…he also heard from SUNY Purchase but he really does not want to attend since they do not have Industrial Design as a major. He is currently working on a small Home Test for the Visual Display/Exhibit Design major at FIT. I asked him to add FIT in as a replacement financial safety to Purchase. No SUNY schools have ID and at least the program at FIT would have some connection to his interests.</p>
<p>In some documentary about Che, I was moved by the way his dad spoke. So I guess that’s how your kid sounds? I’ve been envious of you but now I am jealous.</p>
<p>drae. would be commutable for the kid? you don’t have to answer if you rather not to.
that goes to you, too, fammom how dare me = Cooper cult worry about someone else’s money…shame shame</p>
<p>hey…in the Che movies (including motorcycle diaries) he is always portrayed with a really nice argentinian accent…I don’t know if the revolution ended up affecting his diction in his later years but hollywood has him with a great accent. Briefly my kids attended an argentinian school and sounded like Italians who had somehow learned spanish. </p>
<p>I am intrigued by the way the art schools dole out money. I looked at last year’s threads and SAIC and MICA seemed to send out offers of 6 or 10 grand to a number of kids including ones who were NFAA finalists/Gold award at Nationals etc. As an economist, I wonder if this strategy is actually meant to maximize income from tuition, rather than recognizing outstanding talent, and is not really “giving” money but rather a loss leader strategy. Think of it this way…your kid sends in a portfolio, it looks pretty strong so the art school knows they probably have applied to competing schools and will probably be admitted. If the kid has shown some interest in the school (visits, multiple portfolio reviews at NPDs) , throw them a bone of a moderate scholarship so that the school remains a competitive option. If kid really feels the “fit” with the school, kid will come and spend their parents’ and gov’t’s money (cash, savings, pell grants, and loans) at your school. If the school offers a more substantial amount, they end up losing because they could have still got the kid with the smaller scholarship and received more tuition. In the rare case that your kid gets a more generous offer from a competitor art school, I bet you could go to top choice school and bargain for a higher merit aid award. The economics seem to indicate that the wisest approach for the art schools is to throw many moderate awards to a lot of students rather than only big awards to the few stars. </p>
<p>I suspect we are going to see these types of moderate awards from the various art schools so no single one becomes a “bargain” and you end up spending still a big chunk of money at the one you were thinking of going to anyway. The moderate merit awards may even wean the parents away from pushing a LAC alternative or even OOS schools because with the moderate award the art school is in the ball park, cost wise. Anyway, there’s my theory about art school merit aid…sadly and cynically I think it doesn’t have a lot to do with my S’s talent.</p>
<p>but it does with his brain, so far kids I knew gotten chunks are from good school in academics as well. every art school need brain swimmer, if s/he can doodle well, all the better.</p>
<p>Yesterday, Otis sent an email acceptance to daughter. Still waiting on all the big schools – MICA, Pratt, etc.</p>
<p>D2 is in at MICA, still waiting for Pratt, RISD, and MassArt. Very exciting time!</p>
<p>We got the “Sorry no merit aid for you, big competition, etc etc” letter from MCAD yesterday. It went on to say since she’s been accepted, she should pursue “other means of financing”. My daughter has made no bones about this being her #1 or #2 school. She has gotten other merit scholarship offers from other schools (NHIA (her 3rd choice) NMU as well as some LAC’s), but with the exception of NHAI, has shown no real interest in those schools. We visited NHAI, and NMU but none of the others. Has she shot herself in the foot by appearing too eager? It seems the schools she has no interest in want to throw money at her. I can see the top choice schools saying - oh we don’t really need to give her any $$, she’s dying to come here anyway and her preliminary FAFSA shows a EFC of $52K. (Too bad that EFC doesn’t take into consideration layoffs going on at our company!) Bottom line is: has she lost her bargaining power?</p>
<p>Wow Redbug,
All I can say is it doesn’t hurt to try. We have friends who called a school at the last minute last year just to ask if the school could do better. The son was ready to choose in instate over this private. They came up with a nice offer and today he is at his dream school.</p>
<p>Good luck!!!</p>
<p>ouch
have you read our resident economist = fammom’s analysis post on page 2?
wait on KCAI and see what happens.</p>
<p>Bummer on the no aid!</p>
<p>Still waiting to hear from SAIC…only school I applied to. (I am 25, so it was a calculated risk I guess) I received the “congrats…your portfolio was accepted, we look forward to working with you” letter, but nothing since then. </p>
<p>My gf applied to the dual degree Masters program in Art History / Arts Admin and Policy, and she has not heard yet either </p>
<p>Anyone else receive the SAIC decision yet, and when did you apply? (I submitted feb 10)</p>
<p>Its a very anxious house here. Everyone except our dog is dutifully checking the P.O box every day!</p>
<p>So sorry redbug about the noaid. I will keep my fingers crossed for other apps and I do think sharing bargaining strategies may be our best support here.</p>
<p>Typical number cruncher, I decided to put together a spread sheet of tuition/fees plus estimated costs of attending for all the schools DS has applied to and plugged in the merit aid to date. I am regretting this impulse because seeing it in cold, hard numbers makes DS’ #1 look like a bad joke when lined up with OOS universities and …then the instate with scholarship…how do you deal with first choice costing **5X ** the instate option?!? </p>
<p>My S applied to one or two universities in each of what I see as 3 tiers of universities/art programs. I think his applications cover most of the ground but I am going to generalize here so you may want to provide counter examples.</p>
<p>In terms of cost (all in cost)–the very exclusive universities or LACs with good art programs but with little chance of merit aid will cost a family at least $50,000 per year (WUSTL, Yale, Vassar, RISD/Brown, CMU etc) . On the positive side they often are very generous with F/A.</p>
<p>Prestigious art schools (Otis, MICA, SAIC, SMFA,) will hit you up for about $45,000 but some chance of merit aid brings it down to about 35,000-40,000 (funny how all hte merit aid ranges between 5-12,000 per student so still a big chunk of change). F/A is much less generous.</p>
<p>Then mid level privates or OOS Univ–RIT, Cincinnati, KCAI, Drexel, etc. with more generous aid … 20,000-30,000 per year. Like the art schools, Financial need will not be fully met in most cases.</p>
<p>Last, if you look at an instate program with, potentially generous aid, a family could spend between 5,000-15,000 per year. These schools will help with financial aid but to a very limited extent beyond federal aid. </p>
<p>Cooper, a bit of an anamoly given how exclusive it is, falls more like a mid-level private since for out of area kid will need as much as 20-25,000 to survive in NYC. </p>
<p>So…how do you decide which will provide the most education for the dollar spent? Is it possible to do this? Should you just pay for the best program that your family can afford or should you take the bargain and go down one or two steps on the prestige (maybe quality) ladder? thoughts…Feedback? ideas? </p>
<p>sorry to be the bummer on the general squee thread! They always said that economists are the dismal profession…well, I might as well support that stereotype…certainly as a parent of an art student I seem to have ample material to work with…</p>
<p>your math brain and spreadsheet left out the “feelings” i.e. how your kid like it, how hot are the girls and how many of them ( I have son and this is very important) snow rain heat groom of night ( see my CUNY grad post)<br>
I would, say, want to send redbug’s D to MCAD no matter what.
sorry redbug, NYer doesn’t want my poem, I’ll go buy some NY lotto instead. we split the pot, OK?</p>
<p>AWBacon; Posted yesterday in the Financial Sid forum:</p>
<p>“I recieved a very LOW amount of scholarship money compared to some of the other people that got into SAIC at my school (this ruined most of my confidence) and I was wondering how they decide to give the scholarship. What is it based on?”</p>
<p>Hope things look better for you!</p>